 I'm your host, Winston Welch, and I'm delighted you're joining us again today, where you'll find us every other week, where we explore a variety of topics, organizations, events and the people who fuel them in our city, state, country and world. And maybe the universe, since I just saw on the Internet, we've got the third unconfirmed sighting of UFOs today. So, that said, as a disclaimer, any views today are strictly my own opinions, whatever. They're not connected with any organization. And with that, I am delighted to say I have, again in the studio with me today, Christopher Garth from the Hawaii Dispensary Alliance, which is a patient-centered group of businesses, individuals and political leaders educating and advocating on behalf of medical cannabis. And we didn't get enough time, of course, to talk last time, so thank you again for coming back today. Yeah, absolutely. My pleasure. Thanks so much. I feel like I've been in the studio a lot, and as you said, we didn't get enough time last time. We're probably going to run out, so we should go ahead and work on our next step. We are going to run out of time today. So, right now you're in the middle of a busy legislative season, so you've been tracking some bills, and I would like to go straight to that so people know maybe what's up because, you know, they're hungry for information, so for those of people that aren't able to watch this live, they're going to be able to pick it up later this week and when you post it on your website. Sure. Yeah. Hopefully, we're all of that summer generation, we'll remember how a bill becomes a law through Schoolhouse Rock. How a bill becomes a law. Yeah, there was the little, yeah, he's all rolled up, and it goes on a choo-choo train, doesn't he? Something like that. Yeah. So, we don't have a choo-choo train. We did. That'd be great. We're still working on that. It's coming from Kapolei, but whatever mechanism we're using rolls significantly slower than that. You know, we only have a part-time legislature here. They only run a 60-day sprint, and they're part-time. We elect them in, and they're part-time. So they have, to their estimation, they have 3,000 bills every session that they have to go through, at least at the end of this, or opening with this legislative session. They have 3,000 bills. The reality is, it's probably only half of that, because we do a biennium every two years as a legislative section, and with another 1,500 from the previous session last year, and then 1,500 this year, gives us that 3,000. It's a lot of bills to go through. It's a lot, especially for people that are working part-time, that have other jobs, that have constituents to answer to. I'll say this, they do the best with what they have been given. Okay. And maybe our opinions will change, your viewer at home, your opinion will change at the end of this conversation, but we'll give them that credit right now. They do the best with what they can. We've just experienced crossover, which is where a bill is passed from one chamber, either at the House or the Senate, to the other chamber, or vice versa. And each one of those chambers gets to deal with the material in that measure, or in that bill, and reshuffle, reorganize, strike what they don't like, add what they may like, and then it will go back to the other chamber for approval, for a floor vote, and then we see conference. And conference is really where the nitty and the gritty are put together, filed through, and the result comes out as a final bill. And it goes to the governor's office for signature, ultimately. Now, just to be clear on that, so first of all, you get a bill and maybe you have proposed a bill, and you give it to a sympathetic legislator. Correct. And in either the House or the Senate, and she will craft a bill, or you might help her craft the bill that makes sense. And then she'll have her committee have some hearings, and if it lives through that, then a companion bill, does it have to be introduced in the Senate? It doesn't have to be a companion bill. And most often what we've seen with respect to cannabis bills and perhaps other bills is that the companion in one chamber or the other will usually get shelved for the simple fact that they have so much work to do. They have so much ground to cover. And with so many different issues and different opinions and objectives of either a legislator or public, they don't have the time to dedicate to that conversation. So they just let one chamber focus on that bill, get it as right as they're going to be able to get it, and then throw it over to the other chamber, and then it goes into that other chamber's committee. They're committees in some cases. Committees, various committees, or committees. Yes. Depending on how whoever is in power allocates that decision, is that right? That's called the referral process. The referral process. And so one of your bills, if someone wanted to kind of make sure that it got a very thorough vetting, might put it in three or four committees. Is that possible even? It certainly is. It certainly is. Sometimes you'll see as many as six committees. And depending on how thorough you want the vetting to be, it's more opportune to have fewer committees rather than more. Just because of the deadlines that are imposed through each cycle of each period or term of the legislative session, you might not be able to make the deadlines. You might not be able to make it to the next committee. In which case it just dies. It becomes deferred, ultimately, or filed in a case. So we're in that place where these bills have crossed over once. They have. They're now in the other House committees. Correct? The opposite chamber. And then they are deciding on whether that wording makes sense. And if they want to let it proceed or defer it or just let it run out of time. That is correct. And then it will come back into a... Will it be sent over to the other side? It will be sent over for a floor vote. A floor vote. And then if it passes both sides, does each bill in its respective chamber pass? Or how does that work? Does each bill... So if it comes from the houses, go back to the house and then have to be passed out. What they'll do is they'll send it to conference after the second crossover. And then in conference, you'll have a conference committee with conferees from each chamber where they come into this room and the public sits there and they're very quiet and they're all at attention. And you can hear a pin drop, except you can't hear what... In most cases, you can't actually hear what the legislators are saying. And then they together, they vote in that conference to... They hash it out. It's a tit for tat kind of. It's an exchange of ideas. We'll do this if this happens on... If we can agree. So through that exchange, through that dialogue, oftentimes great ideas are introduced and sometimes very vital ideas are laid to the side for the sake of time or lack of attention to the detail for one reason or another. Oftentimes what comes out of conference can be completely separate from the idea of... What went in? How the bill even originated for the first hearing after it was referred to the beginning of the session. So in the best case scenario, your bill gets heard, gets crossed over, crossed over, crossed over. Everybody votes on it. Each house votes on the approved final version. And then it goes to the governor for signature. I'd say the best case scenario is your bill gets referred in the beginning in January and it gets one committee. And it gets heard in that committee. Maybe it gets deferred, but later on in conference it gets brought up again and the idea gets inserted. Which is something that we've seen before. And you're obviously trying... Thank you for clarifying that process a bit because it is quite opaque for the average Joe or Julie to follow that. And you're obviously dealing, like you said, with part-time legislators who have a lot of different bills from all kinds of angles to compete with. Like you said, 3,000 and they get whittled down, but what is the final amount that comes out of that? And how many are you tracking at this point? So we started the session tracking 94 bills. And that's, of course, carryover from the previous session. And we saw a few of those past last session. We were hoping that some would actually get hearings in this session. But of the, let's see, something like 37, 35 bills that were cannabis specific coming out of 2018, only five of them are moving forward, have actually crossover to the other chamber. And are the rest sort of maybe deferred or maybe just died somewhere? Because they didn't make the crossover deadline because they didn't actually cross over. They're not dead, but they're not going to be heard again. So in that instance, we're waiting for conference. And those ideas or that language to be recirculated, reconstituted into whatever the final product is going to be. And is it easy for you to remember those five bills that have made it through? Which ones that stick out in your mind is the most important that we might be looking at? In all honesty, the most important bills to my members, to my constituency and for the industry, in my opinion, from the perspective of the Hawaii Dispensary Alliance, our bills didn't get heard. Our bills didn't receive the conversation that they should have. Now there is one. There is an omnibus bill. I believe it's 2729, House Bill 2729. That's an omnibus bill. And the new House Health Chair, John Mazzuno, has provided good conversation around this. Chair Baker for Consumer Protection and Health out of the Senate will hear it on Thursday. So that's a good thing. And there are some really good topics within that. One is reciprocity, which allows patients from other states or territories and perhaps even other countries that recognize medical cannabis. They can come to Hawaii and participate in our medical cannabis program. Another is the availability of safe cardiopulmonary devices, which is vaping, basically, to be introduced. And then another is for telehealth to be part of the program. Well, you really have to be kind of a lawyer to figure out all these posts to get by and just hoops to jump through it. It's a very complicated process, so you're a very patient person to get through all of this. Well, as we mentioned in our previous conversation, as much as I'm monitoring these, I am not engaging necessarily with the legislators, with the legislators, with the legislation, with the legislature. I'm letting it work itself out, because as we stated from the get-go to our members and to the general public, we didn't anticipate great success with this legislative session. The asks that we were making with the legislative working group, which was part of what came out of a couple years back legislation, none of those programs, protocols or ideas were really integrated into a legislative measure that made sense, that was a workable. And because it's an election year, we knew that what we wanted wasn't going to happen. So you have to plan years in advance for this. And I think a lot of the time, it's a great idea. It just doesn't make it out of the gate that first year. Whatever the great idea is, people have to think about it and think, oh, it reminds me a lot of the marriage equality battle, that you would have these ideas that is so obvious to people, it's obvious to the masses, right? Of course. You're going to have your people that says, this guy is falling, it's so awful. But you talk about reciprocity, and that it has to be introduced and just chugging back and forward. Why are politicians behind the curve in some of these issues, what is it that they're afraid of? Well, there are a couple of things. One is it's an election year, right? And because they're part-time, but also because they've dedicated themselves to public service, they want to make sure that they have a voice in the next year. So there's value to that. There's value to continuity in our legislators. That makes sense. I'm okay with that, to a certain degree. But the other part is, when it comes to the direction of these programs, be it marriage equality or dignity with death, or in our case, cannabis or medical cannabis, it really, the direction comes from the top down. Instead of the bottom up. Instead of the bottom up. And it's not necessarily the legislators, not necessarily the set of president or speaker of the house, the resistance ultimately, or the direction, comes from the governor. It's interesting. And we'll pick that up when we come back here in a moment where we're going to take a short break and I'm having a great talk with Chris Garth. We're learning a lot about the legislative process and just how patient focus you have to be in this. This is out and about on ThinkTech Livestreaming Network Series. We'll be back in a minute. We have this crazy thing going on today. We're just walking by and all these DJs and producers are set up all around the city. I just walked by and I said, what's happening guys? They told me they were making music. Little talent. And then sat down. I said, what are you doing? Winston Welch back on ThinkTech Livestreaming Network Series. This is out and about. And I'm talking with Christopher Garth, the executive director of Hawaii Dispensory Alliance, who is a very cool cat. And Christopher, so I'm just, Chris, how do you do? How did you get involved in this? I'm curious. It's on a personal level. What brought you to this organization and this cause? So I'm the co-founder of the Hawaii Dispensory Alliance. Garrett Halladier is my business partner. And we, Garrett has a background in developing economies. So he's traveled all through Asia, Southeast Asia, and worked with a number of organizations and diplomats to make sure that, or to really figure out what drives an economy and how to create an economy. And it's not often that an opportunity to be at the threshold of a new industry presents itself, presents itself. And with medical cannabis dispensaries being presented through the legislature a couple of years, or several years back, a couple of people came to me and said, hey, we have this idea. You should create a trade association for the cannabis industry. Jumped at that opportunity and recognized very quickly that this industry wasn't going to, it couldn't be, shouldn't be about just the eight licensees. And we've done everything that we can to engage the public, to engage the professionals, to engage the legislator, the legislators, as well as the licensees here and beyond to make this program in Hawaii as patient-centric as possible, as robust as possible, and as legitimate as possible. And when it comes to the legislation, we've run into some issues there, trying to tackle exactly what the directive of this program should be. We've run into issues with the Department of Health. We've run into issues with our legislators. We've run into issues with the general business community as a whole. As it appears, the information, the education hasn't, wasn't out there to make medical cannabis or cannabis a light conversation or a conversation that anyone wanted to engage with. So we really had to cast a lot of light on this to bring people out of the shadows to prove that if you engage with cannabis, you're not a criminal. If you are a patient, you shouldn't be criminalized, right? You substituted marriage equality for that, and it's the same story. It's the same story. It is. So why are, what are people so afraid about? I mean, it's, you said that it's from the top down, but if you look, if you ask people in the street, they're overwhelmingly in support of this, I believe, aren't they? Yeah, absolutely. Pulling statewide at 71%, and these numbers are provided through anthology research. And then our neighboring counties, Outer Island, pulling at 81%. So this is approval. It's a no brainer. People want this. They want it to be legal. They want it to be open. They want it to be a job creator, a business economic engine to be legal, safe, and available. It's not happening like it should. It's not, unfortunately, and there's still this incredible stigma about public safety regarding this product. The cakey. Well, not even the cakey. It's going to ruin my neighborhood. Well, statistically proven, neighborhoods that have dispensaries are cleaner, have demonstrated less crime, less violent crime, and have a greater sense of community ownership because there's a dispensary. These dispensaries recognize the stigma that's applied to them, so they go out of their way to make sure that their storefronts are clean. They go out of their way to, of course, this is in other areas. And I would assume that as our dispensary program continues to grow and continues to mature, that we'll experience this. Right now, we're still well behind. And I don't know what it is about Hawaii's delegation that keeps cannabis suppressed. And let me, I think that Hawaii was the first state to legalize medical marijuana, wasn't it? We were the first state to legalize it through our legislation. Through our legislation. So this is, and how many years ago was this? This is 1999, 2000. 2000, 1999. It was the same with marriage equality. It was way back in the 90s, at least, and the state said, you have to have a compelling interest to show that this, why can't you grant equality to everyone? And then Hawaii kind of went way back and just didn't really do anything about it and let everyone else catch up. So it was at the vanguard of this, like it is with cannabis. And now it's, but it's time is coming again. People are obviously, they're like, guys, get with it. Help these folks create jobs, create businesses, create sustainable green growth. It is. And we're right around the corner for that. And I think one of the most important factors in getting us over that tipping point or getting us to and then beyond is making sure that we elect the right people. This is an election year. We have the opportunity for the con con coming up. Make sure that you're engaged. Make sure that you're asking anyone who comes and knocks on your door and says, I'm running for X, Y, or Z, ask them how they're going to fund that pet project. Ask them, will cannabis be a part of that funding mechanism? And if not ask them why, if they can't justify it, let them know that they're not the right candidate for you. Very important. This is every individual taking this step. Do you keep a scorecard of folks that you're going to endorse for certain races? We will. The Hawaii Dispensary Alliance will release that information after June or after the first week of June. So that's when the filing deadline happens. And then after that we'll know who's running for which position at the state, at the county, and at the federal level. So you'll be sending out a questionnaire of all the candidates and say, how do you feel about this, that, or the other? They will answer the questionnaire, they'll get back to you, you'll tabulate it and you'll say this is an ally for green growth, for creating jobs, for not being afraid of reality. Absolutely. Actually, we're going to, through another organization that I chair, which is a super pack called Hawaii for Responsible Cannabis Use. Okay, that's a super pack. Hawaii for Responsible Cannabis Use. Right, you can visit that at HIVENN.org. HIVENN.org. Correct. That group will host community forums, they'll bring together all of the candidates, whether they're pro-cannabis or not, to have that discussion before the community. Okay. And this is something, so when people are watching here in the con con, that's a little jargony for some people. What's the con con? Con con is a constitutional convention where we as a state as delegates for our respective political parties and citizens of this great state have the opportunity to take a look at the constitution of the state and say, hey, this is outdated or this needs to be improved, we need to switch this, let's, let's hooli 2018. And could we actually write it in our constitution that we have a right to use medicinal products of our choice or something along those lines? I don't think that that's really, we certainly could have the opportunity for that. But more, I think the true benefit of a constitutional convention for this conversation as well as others is introducing the idea of voter initiatives or ballot initiatives because that's something that we don't have. We've seen medical cannabis, we've seen adult use cannabis pass in other markets and other areas and other states because the citizens have vocalized their desire to have it. When we go back to 2000 and 1999, when it came to medical cannabis in Hawaii, that was done by the legislature. But if the people had spoken up, we would have had this dispensary program, we would have had medical cannabis significantly faster that the availability of those apparatus wasn't available or wasn't introduced and is only available if we have a constitutional convention to allow voter initiatives. Like California. Like California. So perhaps that's something that we can all work on together and if people want to get involved in this and they say, you know what, I'm going to do something about it. What is the line from that movie where it says I'm mad as hell, I'm not going to take it anymore. If you're mad and yell out your window, what was that movie? You know, it's with Faye Dunaway's in it and, oh, not Network, wasn't it Network? Something like that. It'll come to us afterwards. Anyway, Faye Dunaway is in this movie and the guy says, I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore. You can Google it. We're not mad as hell. We just want to have some progress here on this obvious initiative and other people out there watching too and they say, well, I'm, you know, it's Hawaii. I don't really feel like getting that mad, but I'd like to do something about it. How can people participate in this? Can they volunteer for your office? Can they help you ask questions to candidates? Can they show up and help maybe, you know, have to seat people or what can they do? Yeah, absolutely. I think the first thing is to visit our website and that is that is www.hi-4cann.org. That's Hawaii for Responsible Cannabis Use. Check us out. You can donate. You can contribute there. But send us an email. What times you're available to go knock on doors? What resources you have to contribute? If you own a print shop, if you are a graphic designer, let us know. This is a grassroots effort to make sure that all of that collateral is available to you, to the public, to get the word out. And that's so, so we can go to hi-4cann.org. And if they're interested in starting a business, a cannabis related business, whether it's artwork or, you know, accessories or whatever it is, they can visit your website for the Dispensary Alliance. That's correct. That is the, that is HawaiiDispensaryAlliance.org. Hawaii spelled out? That is correct. Okay, HawaiiDispensaryAlliance.org. And that is a 501c6, which is a business league, a Chamber of Commerce. So that's correct. You have, you have a lot of different members there of all different types. We certainly do. Okay. And I think you've also put out a really excellent publication I want to draw people's attention to so that they can find it on the website. And it has a ton of information. It's basically a white paper, the last one that I read. And you gave a shout out to the person who created that for you, but really excellent resource for legislators, for the general public to see that the sky isn't falling. This is a no-brainer. We've got to do this. And that information is contained in your publication, which is called The Cannabis Insider. And you can visit that at cannabisinsidermag.com. Cannabisinsidermag.com. And there's also links on your HawaiiDispensaryAlliance as well. So when we're seeing here five years down the road and you're looking back, what are you going to think? Oh, all that headache for nothing. We're here. We've arrived. It's happened. But, you know, people like you, people like me, viewers like you, we're making this happen one step at a time. Bear with us. Give us what you got. Hang in there. We're going to make it happen. And we're going to make it happen. We're going to—we're transitioning over to a new economy that's clean, green, sustainable that is based in healthy living and good choices. And I think that this is an obvious one. And we can just look towards our fellow Western states as an example and realize we've got a good future in front of us. And with people like you at the helm—and I'm hoping you're going to run for high political office someday or something, but right now what you're doing is super important and we need you to see this through. And then we're going to—but I'm looking for—I'm just seeing a bright future for you as well down the road for other things after this one is tackled. So thank you again for coming on the show and we've got obviously more conversation coming up here in advance. But right now we're going to be monitoring the situation. We're going to have people go to your website, HawaiiDispensaryAlliance.org. Hi4CAN, C-A-N-N.org, and the Cannabis Insider, mag.com. Okay, so that is all we have time for today. I have been delighted to be speaking with Chris Garth, Executive Director of the Hawaii Dispensary Alliance and Co-Chair of the Hawaii Cannabis— Hi4CAN. Hi4CAN.org, which is a super PAC designed to advance this agenda in a civilized way. That's all the time we've got today. So thank you so much for being here, Chris. And I will be looking forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks. I'd like to thank our broadcast engineer Ian Davidson, our technical producer, Ray Sangelang, our floor manager, Robert McLean, and Jay Fidel, our executive producer, who puts it all together. So I hope you have a terrific week out there. Get on your internet, get on the phone and advocate, call your legislators and tell them this is an important issue for you, whether it's for right now or for next year, or down the road, and for other people that you care about and love. So thanks. Until next time, a hui hou.